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Keeping a research diary

Robert G. Burgess
Published online: 10 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Robert G. Burgess (1981) Keeping a research diary,

Cambridge Journal of Education, 11:1, 75-83, DOI: 10.1080/0305764810110106
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305764810110106

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Keeping a research diary

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R O B E R T G.

BURGESS

Recent studies of schools and classrooms by sociologists and by

teachers have utilised an ethnographic approach.1 Ethnography, it is
argued, provides a detailed description of the actions and activities
of the members of the school and gives an account of their culture.
In short, ethnographic accounts allow the researcher to 'get close' to
the data. Such an approach raises the question 'what constitutes
doing ethnography?' A brief glance at any of the basic texts devoted
to ethnography or fieldwork or field research indicates that the main
methods of social investigation include: participant and nonparticipant observation and unstructured interviewing.2 Such a
range of materials highlights one major gap in the discussion of field
research methods; namely documentary evidence in general and
diaries in particular.
This is a serious gap as researchers who engage in ethnographic
work use diaries in order to record the observations that they make
in the school and classroom. Indeed, diaries may be kept by both
researchers who join schools to teach and do research (researcherteachers)3 and by teacher-researchers who alongside their full-time
teaching duties monitor their own work and the activities in their
schools and classrooms by doing research.4 Furthermore, both the
researcher-teacher and the teacher-researcher may get informants,
in the form of teachers and pupils to keep diaries over set periods of
time so that they can gain access to activities which they do not
witness. While both researcher-teachers and teacher-researchers
indicate that part of their research activities involves writing notes
and keeping research diaries, they do not tell us, in any detail, about
how these diaries may be established and maintained. It is,
therefore, the purpose of this article to consider the ways in which
diaries are used in social investigations and to indicate ways in which
diary records can be kept by both the researcher and the informant.
Robert Burgess is Lecturer in Sociology in the Department ofSociology,
University of Warwick.
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The researcher's diary

Although the focus of ethnographic research is put upon a series of

observations and interviews, it is the situations that were observed
and the informants that were interviewed that find their way into
the pages of the final research report. However, if ethnographers
are to provide detailed portraits of the situations that are observed
then they require careful recording in the researcher's diary.
There are few accounts that have provided us with actual material
from the researcher's diary or provided guidance on how to keep a
research diary. Yet such an exercise raises a series of questions
concerning the collection and analysis of data: what data do you
record? How do you record it? What categories can be used in
recording data? Should the diary be supplemented with interview
transcripts, tape-recordings and photographs?
Experienced researchers5 advise that diaries and notes should be
kept in triplicate and written on loose-leaf paper. This approach
allows copies of the diary to be carefully stored in different places to
avoid damage and destruction. Furthermore, it allows the materials
to be sorted and resorted in relation to different topics and themes
that arise during the process of data collection and analysis. As far as
the content of diaries are concerned three major elements are
involved. Firstly, a substantive account of the events that have been
observed and the informants who have been interviewed. Secondly,
a methodological account that involves autobiographical details
outlining the researcher's involvement in the social situation in
addition to an account of the methods of social investigation that were
employed in the study, finally, the diary should contain an analytic
account that raises questions that were posed in the course of conducting research, hunches that the researcher may hold, ideas for
organizing the data and concepts employed by the participants that
can be used to analyse the materials.6 Furthermore, some researchers
have advised that memos should be written throughout the research
process outlining the major themes that can be used to organize the
data. 7
/. The substantive account

The substantive account should involve a detailed chronological

record of the events observed and informants that have been interviewed and engaged in conversation. These notes may be organised
around a series of questions: where? When? What? Who? In
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keeping these questions in mind researchers will be forced to write in

detail about the location in which their observations occurred, the
time they occurred, the actions and activities that took place and the
people who were involved in the situation. In this respect, the
records that are kept on an individual lesson might include details of
what the lesson is about, what members of the group (including the
teacher) say and do (or do not do). Furthermore, details might be
kept on what one or two pupils (selected at random) do in the course
of the lesson.
Such substantive notes can be supplemented by systematic notes
including charts and diagrams. In a school a record can be kept of
teachers and pupils with whom the researcher works. Such a chart
allows some preliminary classification of the individuals involved in
the study and allows the researcher to check on any biases involved
in that study in terms of the age, status, and gender of the informants.
In addition, diagrams may be used as a means of summarising
situations in which the researcher has been involved and to reveal in
graphic form the pattern of social interaction and spatial relationships in classrooms, in meetings, and in situations such as morning
assembly.8 This substantive record, therefore, provides a continuous
description of the situations observed, and persons interviewed.
While such records form the main material out of which the final
report is produced, they may also be supplemented by charts and
diagrams, that allow for further review and analysis. Furthermore,
such accounts can be supplemented by tape-recordings and
photographs that can extend the written records.9
//. The methodological account

While it is widely acknowledged that ethnographic research involves

observation and interviews there are still further questions that need
to be raised. Firstly, under what circumstances were observations
made? Secondly, what role was taken by the researcher? Thirdly,
what informants were selected for study? Finally, how were the
informants selected?
If the researcher attempts to record answers to these questions they
will provide an autobiographical account of the research process and
details of the researcher's involvement in that process. Such an
account will complement the substantive materials and in turn
provide some suggestions about data analysis that can be done.10
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Furthermore, accounts of methodology can help the researcher to

reflect on the philosophical, practical, ethical and political aspects of
the research process.11

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///. The analytic account

The analytic account might include a series of jottings that are maintained over the course of the study. Here, researchers record their
initial questions and the ways in which these questions were
modified over time by the collection of data and by the informants
that were utilised in the study. In this respect, Lacey12 outlines the
various 'stages' through which his project passed and the various
themes that arose in his study. In short, a continuous record can be
maintained of the questions that were used to orientate data
collection and that can be used to start data analysis.
A further source of suggestions for data analysis may come from
the informants themselves. On some occasions, informants may
provide their own analysis of a situation which will provide
researchers with a series of concepts that can be used in the study.
For example, the terminology that pupils use to classify their peers
such as 'swot', 'creep', 'comic' and 'dunce' can be used in the
course of data collection and data analysis to build up a pupil
typology and to establish the ideal type characteristics associated
with these individuals. Secondly, researchers might discuss their
observations with informants. In this instance, workshops can be
established where materials from the researcher's observations and
interviews can be discussed and evaluated by informants. In these
circumstances, the informants may suggest ways in which the data
that has been collected can be augmented, modified and extended.13
Finally, researchers may develop hunches and insights
throughout the course of their research. If these ideas are kept on
record it allows researchers to look at the ways in which social
science concepts, professional concepts, and common sense/everyday
concepts can be employed in the analysis of data.
The informant's diary

Ethnographic research involves the study of people in situ. It

involves the study of informants, their actions and their activities as
they occur. Such an approach presupposes that the researcher can
gain access to informants and their activities. However, it is evident
that in a situation such as a school it is impossible for the researcher
to observe all the activities that occur. This arises for a number of
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reasons. Firstly, the size of the school prevents the researcher being
present at all locations. The researcher has to select which
classrooms to enter, and what groups to study. Secondly, there are
some situations that the researcher may not be allowed to directly
observe, such as meetings restricted to high status members of the
institution, meetings in the head teacher's study and activities in
particular classrooms. Finally, a researcher might be denied access
to some classrooms when teachers are concerned that their work will
be judged or evaluated during the course of the research.
In these circumstances, the researcher needs to obtain accounts
from the participants which will yield a further series of observations
and first hand accounts. Researchers might, therefore, ask
informants to keep diaries about what they do on particular days and
in particular lessons. Teachers and pupils could be asked to record
the activities in which they engage and the people with whom they
interact. In short, what they do (and do not do) in particular social
situations. In these circumstances, subjects of the research become
more than observers and informants; they are co-researchers as they
keep chronological records of their activities.
The diarists (whether they are teachers or pupils) will need to be
given a series of instructions to write a diary. These might take the
form of notes and suggestions for keeping a continuous record that
answers the questions: when? Where? What? Who? Such questions
help to focus down the observations that can be recorded.
Meanwhile, a diary may be subdivided into chronological periods
within the day so that records may be kept for the morning, the
afternoon and the evening. Further subdivisions can be made in
respect of diaries directed towards activities that occur within the
school and classroom. Here, the day may be subdivided into the
divisions of the formal timetable with morning, afternoon and lunch
breaks. Indeed, within traditional thirty five or forty minute lessons
further subdivisions can be made in respect of the activities that
occur within particular time zones, (cf. Flanders interaction
analysis).14
Using informant's diaries gives further detailed data. Firstly,
these diaries provide first hand accounts of situations to which the
researcher may not have direct access. Secondly, they provide
'insider' accounts of situations. Finally, they provide further
sampling of informants, of activities and of time which may
complement the observations made by the researcher.
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The diary-interview

The diary suggests a written record, which may vary in depth and in
detail. In these circumstances, the researcher may still require
further data on which to base an analysis. Here, the diary may hint
at the actions and activities of informants but may lack the telling
detail that characterises the ethnographic record. For example,
pupil diaries may contain details of 'messing around' in particular
lessons and reports of 'doing nothing'. The researcher, therefore,
needs to explore the meaning of these statements when a diaryinterview is conducted. In this way, a detailed picture can be
established about the activities that pupils associate with 'messing
around' and 'doing nothing'.
The diary may, in this instance, be used as a data resource which
the researcher uses to raise a series of questions and queries that may
provide further data. In both the case of the researcher's diary and
the informant's diary an interview may be used with the diarist to
provide more detailed data. When team research is employed,
members of the research team may exchange diaries in order that
questions can be raised about the material recorded by each
individual. Team members can question each other about the
observations they have made so that comparisons can be made
between the different sets of data that have been gathered. These
discussions can be taped and transcribed as they can be used to
provide further data for analysis. Meanwhile, in cases where the
researcher obtains an informant's diary, it may be scanned for data
that needs to be elaborated, discussed, explored and illustrated; all
of which are tasks that can be conducted in an interview.15
The uses of a research diary

Research diaries (whether kept by researchers or by informants) can

be used in a number of ways:
1. As a means of recording field notes: substantive, methodological and analytic.
2. As a means of providing participants accounts of
situations.
3. As a means of generating further data to complement
observational and interview material.
4. As a means of comparing data collected by researchers and by
informants.
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In this respect, diaries provide first person accounts of social

situations. They provide insights into situations and activities and
they provide access to situations in which outsiders cannot go.
However, diarists need to make careful records of the situations in
which they are involved, as these records are used to explore and
explain the social world of schools, classrooms, teachers and
pupils.16

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NOTES AND REFERENCES

For recent studies of schools and classrooms by sociologists

see R. King, All Things Bright and Beautiful? A Sociological

Study of Infants' Classrooms, Chichester: Wiley, 1978, and P.

Woods, The Divided School, London: Routledge and Kegan
Paul, 1979. For accounts of ethnographic studies that have been
conducted by teacher-researchers see R. G. Burgess (ed.),
'Symposium on Teacher-Based Research'. A special issue of
Insight, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1980, and J. Elliot and D. Whitehead
(eds.), 'The Theory and Practice of Educational Action
Research', Classroom Action Research Network, Bulletin No. 4,
1980.
2 For a detailed discussion of ethnography or field research see
L. Schatzman and A. Strauss, Field Research, Englewood Cliffs,
N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1973, and R. Wax, Doing Fieldwork,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971.
3 For examples see D. H. Hargreaves, Social Relations in a Secondary
School, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967, and C.
Lacey,

Hightown

Grammar: the school as a social system,

Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1970.

4 For discussions of the distinctions between researcher-teachers
and teacher-researchers see R. G. Burgess, 'The Role of the
Teacher-Researcher', Insight, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1980, pp. 31-34 and
R. G. Burgess, 'Some Fieldwork Problems in Teacher-Based
Research', British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 6, No. 2,

1980, pp.165-173.
5 See for example B. Webb, 'The art of note-taking' in B.
Webb, My Apprenticeship, London: Longmans, 1926, pp.
364-372.
6 For an account based on research in education see B. Geer,
'First Days in the Field', in P. Hammond (ed.), Sociologists at
Work, New York: Basic Books, 1964, pp. 322-344.
81

For a discussion of this point see B. G. Glaser and A. L.

Strauss, The Discovery of Grounded Theory, London: Weidenfeld

and Nicholson, 1967.

For illustrations of the way in which diagrams can be used in
research diaries see R. Bogdan and S. J. Taylor, Introduction

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to Qualitative Research Methods, London: Wiley, 1975, and for the

way in which diagrams can be used in research reports on classroom observation see R. Stebbins, 'Physical Context Influences
on Behaviour: The Case of Classroom Disorderliness', in M.
Hammersley and P. Woods (eds.), The Process of Schooling,
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976, pp. 208-216.
9 For an account that provides a good background on the use of
visual and audio-visual recordings in schools and classrooms,
see R. Walker and C. Adelman, A Guide to Classroom Observation,

London: Methuen, 1975.

10 The way in which methods of social research are linked to the
questions posed and the analysis used in the study of schools
and classrooms is revealed in R. Nash, Classrooms Observed,
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973.
11 For a series of reflections on educational research see M.
Shipman (ed.), The Organisation and Impact of Social Research,

London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976.

12 See C. Lacey, 'Problems of Sociological Fieldwork: A Review
of the Methodology of "HightownGrammer",' in M. Shipman
(ed.), The Organisation and Impact of Social Research, London:

Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976, pp. 63-88.

13 For an account of the way in which links may be made between
observations and interviews and subsequent comments made
by teachers see J. Nickerson and P. Scrimshaw, 'The Biology
Lesson' or 'Some Processes of Interpersonal Education: A
Draft Analysis', Classroom Action Research Network, Bulletin No.

4, 1980, pp. 56-65.

14 For a discussion of Flanders Interaction analysis see N.
Flanders, Analyzing Teacher Behaviour, New York: Addison-

Wesley, 1970, and for a commentary on this approach see S.

Delamont, Interaction in the Classroom, London: Methuen, 1976.
15 For a discussion of diary-interviews see D. H. Zimmerman and
D. L. Wieder, 'The Diary : Diary-Interview Method', Urban
Life, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1977, pp. 479-498.
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16 Many of the issues raised in this article concerning ethnographic research and the keeping of research diaries are discussed in more detail in R. G. Burgess (ed.), Field Research :
A Sourcebook and Field Manual, London: Allen and Unwin,
1981 (forthcoming).

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